Falsani: Can Pope Francis live up to St. Francis?

A Franciscan friar walks past the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi which sits above the tomb of Saint Assisi in Assisi, Italy. JOE RAEDLE, GETTY IMAGES

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Souvenir statues of St. Francis of Assisi are seen for sale near the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi which holds the tomb of Saint Francis of Assisi. JOE RAEDLE, GETTY IMAGES

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Franciscan friars walk together in a procession during a mass at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi which holds the tomb of Saint Francis of Assisi. JOE RAEDLE, GETTY IMAGES

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This faded frescoes can be seen on the outside of an Anglican church in Assisi, Italy. CATHLEEN FALSANI, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Pope Francis said he was inspired to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi, shown above in a mosaic, because of his work for peace and the poor. CATHLEEN FALSANI, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi sits above the tomb of Saint Assisi in Assisi, Italy. Cardinal Jorge Mario Begoglio took the name Pope Francis after Saint Francis of Assisi who had renounced a life of privilege, by giving away all his possessions, wearing coarse woolen clothes and living in a humble hut after he took a vow of poverty. CATHLEEN FALSANI, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The name Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio chose as his nomem pontificalem has a long history in my family.

My Irish grandfather was a Francis, although he was an orphan so we've never known why my great-grandparents chose his Christian name.

For much of my life, I had three uncles named Francis – my mother's brother (named after his father), my father's brother-in-law, and my mother's brother-in-law, my Uncle Frank Aloi, a gentle and loving man of Italian ancestry whom I am blessed still to have with me on this side of the veil.

Until this week, however, I'd never given any thought to the presence of all these Francises in my life, and what importance the name might hold.

When the new pontiff chose to be known as Papa Francesco – the first in the history of the papacy – he let us know he'd taken the namesake of one of Italy's patrons, St. Francis of Assisi, a man renown for his humility, devotion to the poor and love for all of creation.

Which is how I found myself on the platform of the Assisi train station in the Umbrian countryside earlier this week, peering through the fog and mist to the fortresslike basilica where St. Francis is buried, and at the town where he was born in 1181 (and spent much of his life.)

I wanted to see where St. Francis discovered God's fingerprints pressed into the landscape that surrounded his home and hermitage in the foothills of the Apennine Mountains.

I wanted to walk in the actual place where the saint known as Il Poverello ("The Little Poor One") preached to the birds, and communed with his "brother sun and sister moon."

I'm not sure what the simple friar who considered poverty his "bride" would make of his birthplace today – a town that draws millions of pilgrims each year to visit its medieval and Renaissance edifices including three grand basilicas, cathedral, monasteries, and other religious sites.

But I suspect he would not be pleased.

How many poor, sick, orphans, widows, and outcasts might have been helped with the money that built grand monuments to God and to himself, the Little Poor One. What tragic irony.

The basilica that bears St. Francis' name (and houses his remains) is majestic and haunting, decorated in magnificent frescoes created by renowned Italian artists over several centuries, marble flooring, gilded altars, and all the other accouterments of the very heights of high church. It is also cold, and in one of the coldest nooks of the basilica is a room that houses a few of St. Francis' scant personal belongings.

On display in the dimly lit room are his vestments (a literal patchwork of dark, greenish wool), his shoes (a pair of what look like very well-worn, tiny sheepskin slippers – he was a wee man, standing maybe 5-foot-4), and a piece of his famous hair shirt.

I don't know what you picture when you think of a hair shirt, but what the St. Francis wore looked nothing like what I had imagined. It was crudely woven from wide bands of course horsehair (or similar) and was the thickness of one of those handmade rag rugs. It must have weighed five pounds or more.

That one-foot-square remnant gave me more of a sense for the real St. Francis than anything else in Assisi – well, at least anything else man-made.

Assisi is a breathtakingly beautiful town, built upon steep terraces that ascend eastward from a verdant valley about 2.5 miles away – where Francis founded his religious order – toward Mount Subasio. It wasn't until I walked up the slopes of Assisi, in the rain, that I felt St. Francis' presence.

I felt him in the (nearly gale-force) wind, the quiet solitude; in the aroma of the trees and the sound of the birds chattering away in their branches. I understood why Francis met God in this place.

Born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone (and knicknamed "Francesco" by his father, Pietro, a wealthy silk merchant), as a young man, St. Francis relinquished his former life in the most dramatic fashion: by stripping naked on the steps of the cathedral, handing his clothes to his papa, and declaring that God alone was his father.

On a pilgrimage to Rome, St. Francis (who, interestingly, never was ordained a priest), ended up begging with the poor at St. Peter's Basilica – an experience that convinced him to live a life of poverty. As the story goes, he also had vision of Jesus calling to him, saying: "Francis, Francis, go and repair my house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins."

The Little Poor One knew all that the world of wealth and influence (secular and religious) had to offer. Yet he walked away.

So, with all this in mind, whither Pope Francis?

"As someone who joined the Catholic Church in 2009, largely by following the path of my passion for the life and message of Francis of Assisi, I am reveling now in this opportunity for reform," said Jon M. Sweeney, author of several books that deal with St. Francis, including the new "Francis of Assisi in His Own Words: The Essential Writings."

"We now have a pope who took the name Francis – why did it take so long for a pope to do that? – and seems to want to bring change, ironically, as Roman Pontiff, from the bottom up!," Sweeny said. " I love the moves he's made in the first few days. The simplicity, humility, and respect he has shown."

Ian Morgan Cron, an Episcopal priest and author of the 2006 novel "Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale," was at a university lecturing about St. Francis and his relevance to contemporary life, when a student shared the news that a pope had been elected and named himself Francis.

"I was stunned," Cron said. "I thought, 'Man, this guy understands instant messaging!' In selecting the name Francis he was announcing to the world that he personally intends to restore the credibility of a church in crisis, like the Little Poor One did."

Listening to Cron describe the crises of the Roman church in the Middle Ages, I am struck by the similarities to the church today.

"When St. Francis arrived on the scene, the Catholic Church was hemorrhaging credibility," Cron said. "Among the wider population it was viewed as hypocritical, out of touch, corrupt, and untrustworthy. Sexual scandals among clergy were so commonplace that street minstrels wrote and sang songs ridiculing offenders. Misuse of church funds was the rule not the exception. Clerics lived shamelessly opulent lives, when the majority of people lived in poverty.

"In short, the church's reputation was at a dangerous, all-time low. Christendom was on the verge of collapse," Cron said. "Historians credit St. Francis with rescuing the church from utter ruin. This is why he is called 'the first Reformer'."

Will Pope Francis be that reformer? Will he be, as one Franciscan friar told me earlier this week, "the reincarnation, as it were, of St. Francis"?

Many folks, Catholic or not, are hopeful. The new pontiff's first public impression as a man of and for the people – particularly the poor and those on the margins – seems to bode well.

But Cron said time will tell how much Papa Francesco is like his venerable namesake.

"St. Francis would eschew all the pomp and privilege of the papacy, which the current pope has yet to do, but since he has only been pope for 15 minutes I'll cut him a little slack.

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